Delhi
Cut This Scene
The CBFC (Censor Board) was in the news when 13 high-profile members, including chairperson Leela Samson, finally quit in protest. Their term was over in May 2014, but members were asked to stay till a new board was appointed. Most members said the last straw was the hasty certification of Messenger of God, starring Dera Sacha Sauda godman Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insaan, by the BJP-appointed Film Appellate Tribunal, which was called to adjudicate. Bollywood pulp film man Pahlaj Nihalani is new CBFC chief.
Delhi
Almost ‘Desi’
This has got to be a first. Both Canada and the US have appointed Indian-origin envoys to India. Canadian high commissioner Nadir Patel (44) and the US ambassador Rahul Richard Verma (46) presented their credentials to the president together. While Patel was born in Gujarat and speaks Gujarati at home, Verma’s parents had migrated from Punjab. Both come with rich experience, Patel as Canadian consul in Shanghai; Verma as former assistant secretary of state.
Manipur
Catch ’Em Young
Manipur health minister Phungzatham Tonsing (77) raised eyebrows recently by marrying a 24-year-old fresh nursing graduate. The minister’s well-wishers were sympathetic. He had lost his first wife in 2011 and his children lived away from the state...so he needed to be looked after, they explained. Truly, but why not by someone who is older and perhaps a bit more experienced?
Maharashtra
No Cheese This, Big Mac
McDonald’s temporarily shut down an outlet in Pune after it was attacked and plastered with cowdung in protest after the staff threw out a street kid who’d been offered a drink by a customer. The management apparently said people like these are not allowed in. The incident triggered outrage on social media and an NGO in Calcutta even rounded up 15 children from a slum and marched them into a McDonald’s for a feast of burgers and fries. Cynics, though, wondered if the outrage would change Indians’ behaviour towards the less privileged. Despite a profusion of religious spirituality in the air, there are few signs of any change in popular attitudes.
Assam/Tamil Nadu
Rooster Run Ragged
While BJP ministers have been claiming that everything from organ transplants to the Pythagoras theorem originated in Bharat, Maneka Gandhi’s struck a discordant note claiming animal sports was a ‘western concept’ and therefore the BJP welcomed the SC ban from 2012. People who have been assembling, some say for centuries, at the 16th century temple outside Guwahati to watch bird (bulbul) fights on Bihu and those in Tamil Nadu who associate Pongal with Jallikattu (taming the bull) may not quite agree. Some of them even question why a similar ban isn’t there on elephant polo, horse racing etc, claiming that too is cruelty to animals. But as the debate rages between animal lovers and others who feel the ban is an infringement on tradition and custom, some enterprising fans have come up with variations like blindfolded women catching roosters tied on a string to derive some thrills.
Delhi
Made For The Chair
After Prof Jagdish Bhagwati declared PM Narendra Modi as God’s gift to India, the BJP’s CM candidate Kiran Bedi also invoked the heavens saying it was they who wanted her to join the BJP and contest the polls. That said, her assertion that she found the world’s most beautiful face in the PM has set a new benchmark for cringing sycophancy. But give the lady her due. Reminded of her critical tweets on Modi/BJP in the past, she deadpanned, but aren’t tweets situational? Politics and ‘Kiran didi’ already seem a snug fit.
Maharashtra
Lonesome Tonite?
Move over, Sunny Leone, Sapna Pabbi is here. Last year, the ex-pornstar had launched the Ragini MMS trailer on various adult sites. Sunny-come-lately Pabbi is set to do one better, promote her upcoming erotic thriller Khamoshiyan on adult social networking sites and chat with men past midnight! Download central, this is.
